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xfce:thunar:faq [2020/01/03 22:35] – [Frequently Asked Questions - Thunar] alexxconsxfce:thunar:faq [2025/05/07 07:57] (current) – [How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?] alexxcons
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-{{ :xfce:thunar:thunar.png?nolink|}} +~~NOTOC~~ 
-====== Frequently Asked Questions - Thunar ======+{{ :xfce:thunar.png?nolink|}} 
 +====== Thunar - Frequently Asked Questions ======
  
 The intent of this section is to collect the quite numerous frequently asked questions that relate to working with Thunar. If you know of a question that is missing from this page, please [[https://bugzilla.xfce.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunar&component=Documentation&resolution=---|file a request]]. The intent of this section is to collect the quite numerous frequently asked questions that relate to working with Thunar. If you know of a question that is missing from this page, please [[https://bugzilla.xfce.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunar&component=Documentation&resolution=---|file a request]].
  
 +    * [[#Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root?|Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root?]]
     * [[#Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?|Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?]]     * [[#Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?|Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable?]]
     * [[#Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?|Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?]]     * [[#Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?|Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files?]]
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     * [[#How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?|How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?]]     * [[#How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?|How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts?]]
     * [[#Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?|Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?]]     * [[#Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?|Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders?]]
-    * [[#Where are the deleted items from the trash located?|Where are the deleted items from the trash located?]] +    * [[#How to disable recently used files?|How to disable recently used files?]] 
-    * [[#Can Thunar display video thumbnails?|Can Thunar display video thumbnails?]]+    * [[#How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes?|How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes?]] 
 +    * [[#How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?|How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows?]]
  
 ---- ----
  
-=== Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable? === +===== Why does Thunar forget its settings when run as root? =====
-For security reasons Thunar only executes files of type application/x-desktop, application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript. For desktop files the execution feature will only be enabled if the desktop file is of type Application and a valid Exec line is given or of type Link and a valid URL is given. For the other types the feature is available if the file is marked executable for the current user.+
  
-Also note that for application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript, the types of the file don't really need to match these types exactly, but it is suffice if the detected type has a parent that matches one of the two types listed above, or if the MIME-type is an alias for one of the above.+Thunar relies on ''xfconf'' to load/store its settings, The communication to ''xfconf'' is done via DBUS. When run as root, per default, no dbus-session is running. 
 + 
 +You can start Thunar as root with dbus-session with the following command: 
 + 
 +''$ sudo dbus-run-session thunar'' 
 + 
 +or 
 + 
 +''$ gksu dbus-run-session thunar''
  
 ---- ----
 +===== Why doesn't Thunar execute files marked as executable? =====
 +For security reasons, by default Thunar only executes files of type application/x-desktop, application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript. For desktop files the execution will only be possible if the desktop file is of type Application, the execute flag is set and the file is trusted. (desktop files inside ''XDG_DATA_DIR'' are executable by default).
 +
 +Also note that for application/x-executable and application/x-shellscript, the types of the file don't really need to match these types exactly, but it is sufficient if the detected type has a parent that matches one of the two types listed above, or if the MIME-type is an alias for one of the above.
 +
 +Execution of binary files explicitly needs to be enabled in the [[xfce:thunar:preferences#advanced_preferences|advanced preferences]].
 +
 +----
 +
 +===== Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files? =====
 +
 +Thunar has its file and folder metadata storage implemented as a set of key/value pairs. Since 1.6, this data is stored using the ''gvfs-metadata'' daemon. The location of the metadata is kept in ''$XDG_DATA_HOME/gvfs-metadata'' (generally ''$HOME/.local/gvfs-metadata''. The format the data is stored in is binary; but, it can be queried and viewed  using the ''gio'' command.
 +
 +For example:
 +The command ''gio info -a metadata:: /some/location'' will return an abbreviated list of key/value pairs including the file's URI, local path, and unix mount.
 +
 +For a more detailed list of file information, omit the ''-a metadata::'' flag. This will return details such as icon type, access permissions, time created, etc. 
  
-=== Where does Thunar store the metadata associated with files? === 
-Thunar associates various settings with files/folders, which we call metadata. Since version 1.6 this data is stored using the ''gvfs-metadata'' daemon. The save location of the daemon data is in ''$XDG_DATA_HOME/gvfs-metadata/''. Unfortunately the content of these files is rater awful, so you can query the metadata of a location with the command ''gvfs-info -a metadata:: /some/location''. 
  
-[[|Back to Top]]+See [[https://docs.gtk.org/gio/file-attributes.html|GIO File Attributes]] page for additional types of data stored.
 ---- ----
  
-=== Where does Thunar store its preferences? ===+===== Where does Thunar store its preferences? =====
  
 Thunar stores the user configurable preferences (and hidden settings) in an [[:xfce:xfconf:|Xfconf]] channel. You can view the contents of this settings channel with the [[:xfce:xfce4-settings:editor|Settings Editor]]. Thunar stores the user configurable preferences (and hidden settings) in an [[:xfce:xfconf:|Xfconf]] channel. You can view the contents of this settings channel with the [[:xfce:xfce4-settings:editor|Settings Editor]].
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 ---- ----
  
-=== How to use mouse gestures in Thunar? ===+===== How to use mouse gestures in Thunar? =====
 Thunar currently features basic support for so called //mouse gestures// in its icon view. You can use these mouse gestures by holding down the middle mouse button (usually the mouse wheel) while the mouse pointer is on the background area of the icon view component (any area that is not covered by an icon or a text). Now you can move the cursor into four directions to perform certain actions, which are described below. Thunar currently features basic support for so called //mouse gestures// in its icon view. You can use these mouse gestures by holding down the middle mouse button (usually the mouse wheel) while the mouse pointer is on the background area of the icon view component (any area that is not covered by an icon or a text). Now you can move the cursor into four directions to perform certain actions, which are described below.
  
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 ---- ----
  
-=== How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts? ===+===== How do I assign different keyboard shortcuts? =====
  
-For thunar 1.6.0: hover over the menu option with the mouse pointer and press the keyboard shortcut you want to rebind it to. +Starting with thunar 4.18 you can make use of the [[xfce:thunar:preferences#shortcuts|shortcuts editor]] to assign keyboard shortcuts.
-Read more about this in the general [[:faq|FAQ]]. This functionality has been disabled by GTK3.+
  
-For thunar 1.7.0 (gtk3) and above you first need to quit thunar: ''thunar -q''+For Thunar 4.16 and before, please refer to the [[xfce:thunar:4.16:faq#how_do_i_assign_different_keyboard_shortcuts|previous Wiki pages]].
  
-After that edit the accelerators located in ''$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Thunar/accels.scm'' (e.g. ''~/.config/Thunar/accels.scm'' )+Note that for some keys the ''<Shift>'' modifier seems to be ignored. (E.g. ''<Primary><Shift>1'' fails, where ''<Primary>exclam'' works fine.) Most likely a gtk bug.
  
-The custom keyboard shortcuts are stored in the standard GTK+ accel map format in a file located at ''$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Thunar/accels.scm''. Lines starting with ; are comments. See the GTK+ documentation for details about the file format.+Check the [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/blob/master/gdk/keynames.txt|keynames.txt]] for a list of available keys.
  
-If you are a packager or a system administrator and want to provide a system wide default for the keyboard shortcuts, that is different from the default shortcuts in Thunar, you can create a file ''Thunar/accels.scm'' in one of the ''$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS''. For example, if ''/etc/xdg'' is part of ''$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS'' (the default for most Linux distributions), you can install system wide defaults to ''/etc/xdg/Thunar/accels.scm''. Thunar will then load shortcuts from this file on first startup.+If you are a packager, or a system administrator, and want to provide a system wide default for the keyboard shortcuts, that is different from the default shortcuts in Thunar, you can create a file ''Thunar/accels.scm'' in one of the ''$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS''. For example, if ''/etc/xdg'' is part of ''$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS'' (the default for most Linux distributions), you can install system wide defaults to ''/etc/xdg/Thunar/accels.scm''. Thunar will then load shortcuts from this file on first startup.
  
-Hint: If you add a new UserCustomAction with keyboard shortcut, it will show in ''accels.scm''. Like that you can check the naming used for every key/modifyer. 
  
 ---- ----
  
-=== Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders? ===+===== Why does Thunar display the fall-back icon for all files and folders? =====
  
 If Thunar displays the fallback icon for all files and folders, as shown in the screenshot below, it is usually caused by one of the following problems: If Thunar displays the fallback icon for all files and folders, as shown in the screenshot below, it is usually caused by one of the following problems:
  
-{{ documentation:thunar-faq-broken-icons.png }}+<figure "Fallback Icon"> 
 +{{:xfce:thunar:thunar-fallback-icon.png|Fallback Icon}} 
 +</figure>
  
   - You don't have an [[http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fxsettings_2dspec|XSETTINGS]] manager running,    - You don't have an [[http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fxsettings_2dspec|XSETTINGS]] manager running, 
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 ---- ----
  
-=== Where are the deleted items from the trash located? === +===== How to disable recently used files? =====
-Thunar is following the freedesktop standards in this. Following the links below you can find out more of this freedesktop specifications. Read more [[http://www.ramendik.ru/docs/trashspec.html|here]] and [[http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.6.html|here]].+
  
-You will find your deleted items in ''~/.local/share/Trash/files''+If you want to prevent the store of all files opened via thunar (or other gtk based applications), you can create <code>~/. config/gtk-3.0/setting.ini</code> and write the following inside:
  
 +<code>
 +[Settings]
 +gtk-recent-files-enabled=0
 +</code>
 ---- ----
  
-=== Can Thunar display video thumbnails? === +===== How to use trash functionality on BTRFS volumes? =====
-Two possible ways. First, You'll need to build thunar with support for gconf (GNOME thumbnailers) and install one of the available  +
-movie thumbnailers for GNOME, i.e. Totem includes the totem-video-thumbnailer. Second, You can get thumbnails without GNOME by  +
-installing [[http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/thunar-plugins/thunar-thumbnailers|thunar-thumbnailers]] plugin.+
  
 +Some users may encounter issues with trash functionality on BTRFS volumes in Gtk based file managers like Thunar, even when the x-gvfs-trash option is specified in the /etc/fstab entry. This issue results in files being permanently deleted instead of being moved to Trash when deleted.
 +
 +**Workaround**: To enable Trash functionality on BTRFS volumes, add a specific subvolume mount option (subvol). This workaround was identified due to limitations in GVFS support for trashing on system-internal mounts, as detailed in the GLib bug report https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/1885.
 +----
 +
 +===== How to give unique identifiers to specific Thunar windows? =====
 +
 +If, for example, you want to open a Thunar window on a specific screen or workspace, it might make sense to start separate Thunar processes and force a specific application-name for them. This will allow moving these instances, based on the chosen name. In order to use separate processes, the command ''dbus-launch'' has to be used to accomplish this:
 +
 +  * XOrg: '' $dbus-launch thunar --class My-Custom-Name''
 +  * Wayland: '' $dbus-launch thunar --name My-Custom-Name''
 +
 +Note that each Thunar instance will create an isolated D-Bus session environment. Additionally, several other Thunar internal mechanics will be multiplied, leading to a much bigger total memory footprint.
 +
 +----
  
 [[|Back To Top]] [[|Back To Top]]
 ---- ----
-[[:xfce:thunar:|Back to Thunar documentation page]]+[[:xfce:thunar:|Return to Thunar Main Documentation Page]]